Dennis Hof, the owner of seven legal brothels in Nevada — including the Bunny Ranch just outside of Carson City — caused a tabloid stir recently when two of his Bunny Ranch girls had their pictures taken with former President Bill Clinton during a charity gala in Los Angeles.

The photo was picked up by international media including the London Daily Mail, TMZ and the New York Daily News.

“It took on a life of its own,” Hof said. “Anytime you can throw Bunny Ranch, Bill Clinton and hookers into the same sentence, you have some serious media.”

Hof and the girls from the Bunny Ranch — Barbie Girl and Ava Adora — were invited guests to the Unite4Humanity wing-ding in LA. Clinton was the opening speaker.

Somehow, Barbie Girl and Ava Adora were able to wiggle through Clinton’s Secret Service entourage to get their photos taken with the former president.

“Dennis was so nice to take me and Barbie because we are both huge Bill Clinton fans,” Adora said. “So when he came into the room with all his Secret Service guys, both Barbie and I and (retired porn star) Ron (Jeremy) and Dennis immediately jumped up and went over there.

“Barbie managed to get through the Secret Service and said, ‘Hi, I’m Barbie Girl from HBO’s Cathouse and I work at the Bunny Ranch. Can we take your photo?’” Adora said.

Clinton was very accommodating, Adora said.

“He was so nice to us, to let us take a photo with him,” she said. “After it was over, I turned to him and said, ‘Thank you Mr. President.’ And he said, “I love posing with pretty girls.’”

TMZ reported initially that sources close to the event said the two Bunny Ranch girls were party crashers and were immediately tossed from the gala. TMZ later reported the girls were with Hof and had every right to be there as guests of Hof, an invitee celebrity. The group, including Hof’s friend, Jeremy, all went through the security check before meeting Clinton.

Hof even had a banner posted on his Bunny Ranch web site promoting the sale of tickets to the event, which went for $4,000 each.

Hof said he had no way of knowing how many people bought tickets to the gala because of the ad on his web site. He suspected there might have been a few.

“I did see some people there that I knew,” Hof said. “But they were with their wives so I didn’t talk to them.”